Thursday, October 18, 2012

baby in the wings

There has been a baby boom this week (at least for me)...i have had 4 clients give birth, none of my doula clients, but 2 women from my classes, and 2 births where i was the second..well one so far, but i am headed to the second tonight as soon as i get the "pushing" call. I have a very sore mouth from some dental surgery yesterday and i felt like i was ran over by a truck all day..but i am excited to head to this birth tonight.

I have been reading a lot of Michel Odent lately...here is a very informative article about the hour following birth. "Certain midwives can still practice authentic midwifery. This means they are not prisoners of strict guidelines and protocols. They can play their role of protectors of the physiological processes. Immediately after the birth of the baby the main preoccupation of such midwives is the release by the mother of a high peak of oxytocin because it is necessary for safe delivery of the placenta and is the hormone of love.

They first make sure the room is warm enough. During the third stage women never complain that it is too hot. If they are shivering, it means the place is not warm enough. In the case of a homebirth, the only important tool to prepare is a transportable heater that can be plugged in any place and at any time and can be used to warm blankets or towels. Their other goal is to make sure the mother is not distracted at all while looking at the baby’s eyes and feeling contact with the baby’s skin. There are countless avoidable ways of distracting mother and baby at that stage. The mother can be distracted because she feels observed or guided, because somebody is talking, because the birth attendant wants to cut the cord before the delivery of the placenta, because the telephone rings, or because a light is suddenly switched on, etc. At that stage, after a birth in physiological conditions, the mother is still in a particular state of consciousness, as if "on another planet." Her neocortex is still more or less at rest. The watchword should be, "Don’t wake up the mother!"

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About Me

I am a mother of four children, ranging in ages from 20 months to 10 years old. I homeschool my kiddos..or to be more accurate i am with my children most of the day, and they (as am i) are always learning..better? I am a doula and holistic birth educator and i very much value motherhood and BEING with my children. I love photography, art, social activism and people who don’t take themselves too seriously.